Sunroof drain leak and odor in cabin. CPO warranty.

[zigrow]

My sportwagen has had the sunroof drain on the passenger side back up and leak into the passenger side of the vehicle twice within a 6 month period. The 2nd time was worse and it showed leakage on all pillars of the passenger side. The carpet in the passenger footwell was wet after the 2nd leak also. Now an odor of stagnant water has developed in the car that you can smell throughout the whole cabin. It is coming from the carpet and insulation on the passenger side. While I was trying to zero in on the odor I found a gear on the passenger floor that turned out to be a Glovebox part. The glovebox has always slammed open but I never saw it as an issue.

I took it in for service at the dealership under the CPO warranty. They want to charge me directly for both the sunroof drain cleaning of debris and the glovebox repair. They referenced the debris clogging the drain and that the glovebox was not reassembled properly after a repair when I asked why I would have to pay anything outside of the $50 deductible. When I let them know that I thought it was unreasonable to pay for the repairs they said that they would call Volkswagen warranty and see what they could do. I also pushed for them to do something about the odor in the carpet that was a result of the sunroof drain leak.

They are to get back to me but any advice on how to proceed from my end would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[vbrad26]

My wifes old Tiguan that we bought new with original warranty had sunroof drain issues so water got into the car.
They did whatever to the drains, and also gave us a new headliner along with all new floor carpet.
I'm not sure what the fix for the drains is in your case (bust most of the time I think it is just removing the spider traps) so cleaning them may be a whole separate thing, and I wouldn't expect that to be covered under warranty.
If they were replacing all of the drain lines or sometheing then cleaning them wouldn't even come up, as they would just be replaced. So it makes me think they are just removing the traps.
However, I don't know exactly what they did to my drains but I don't remember them giving me a hard time about debris or trying to make me pay anything.

As for the glove box you may be able to fix that yourself.
Did someone change your cabin filter recently?
It sounds like the little "brake" that slows down the opening of the glove box popped out when someone was in there changing the cabin filter.
As long as nothing is actually broken, you should be able to put that back in yourself.

 

[zigrow]

So VW warranty ended up approving full carpet and padding replacement in the car which sounded great at the time. They even cleaned the pan while the old carpets and padding were out. When I got in the vehicle I could still smell the odor. I figured I'd take it home and see if it faded after a few days. We had good weather and I left the vehicle in the sun with all doors hatch and sunroof open for 2 days.

2 weeks on and the odor is still there and seems to be stronger now. The smell is throughout the cabin and it doesn't seem to be eminating from any particular spot. It doesn't seem to be coming from the vents when you turn the HVAC system on. There has to be stagnant water pooled up somewhere inside this vehicle and I want to provide as much information to the service dept as possible. I called them back and scheduled another service yesterday and when I went out to my car in the afternoon the whole front windshield was fogged up on the inside and the rear passenger window was fogged up slightly. Any suggestions?

 

[SRGTD]

Any water in your spare wheel well?

 

[russiankid]

Check your rear doors. I had clogged drains and water would pool up and create a musty smell.

 

[zigrow]

Checked the spare tire well after the leak but not since it was returned from the dealer replacing carpets.

I will check the doors.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[amsr]

Did you ever figure it out? I’m having similar issues.

 

[The Fed]

I can't believe all the issues many are having with sunroofs. I had a MK4 for 8 years and MK5 for 7 years, both with sunroofs, and never had a problem. They were garaged at night but it still rains a lot here and where I used to live. I had "plain" sunroofs in them, but they still had drains and they never clogged up. I never even looked for a drain let alone clean them. Is the new design that bad? Many other carmakers have the type that opens outside the roof, do they have problems too? Makes me kinds glad R's don't come with them in the US.

Anyway OP, there's still the headliner, which you didn't say was replaced. It's soft, so there's soft material behind it, which could be mildewed or moldy. I haven't had the pillar trim off, but they're soft too. Hard to see if there's a problem on dark colors until it's very bad. All you can do is take it back and complain some more. They obviously missed something. I'm thinking VW will cover it.

 

[vbrad26]

I posted above about my wife's old Tiguan having a leak.
We have an Atlas now, and we have not yet had a problem (knock on wood) but apparently there are a lot of complaints about leaking sunroofs on the Atlas forums.
It seems like these days you get a sunroof that A. leaks or B. explodes.